Sunday, March 19, 2017

FEAST OF ST.JOSEPH CREAM PUFFS RECIPE

Happy Feast of St. Joseph to everyone! St. Joseph’s Day
arrives hot on the heels of St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) so when Sassy
and I were children in Brooklyn we’d barely finished the last bite of Irish
Soda Bread slathered with butter when our mothers began baking Pan di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Bread) which we ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dessert, of course, was Sfingi di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Cream Puffs)

Pan di San Giuseppeand today I am here to share the easiest recipe I have ever seen for Sfingi di San Giuseppe. I found it a few years ago in The Washington Post and it has been my go-to recipe ever since.

Ingredients:

For the sfingi

1 cup
flour

1/4
teaspoon salt

1 cup
water

8
tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 large
eggs

1
tablespoon sugar

1
tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1 tablespoon
finely grated lemon zest

For the
filling and assembly

16 ounces
fresh ricotta cheese

1 cup
sugar

2 to 3
teaspoons almond extract

1
tablespoon rum or rum extract

1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon

1
tablespoon finely grated orange zest

2
tablespoons mini semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup
whole or low-fat milk, or as needed

16 raspberries
or strawberry halves, for garnish

Directions

For the sfingi: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Use cooking oil spray to
grease 16 muffin tin wells.

Combine the flour and salt in a medium
bowl.

Heat the water and butter in a medium
saucepan over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, add the flour mixture;
immediately reduce the heat to medium-low and stir vigorously, scraping the
sides and bottom of the saucepan, until the dough comes together in a cohesive
ball that appears fairly dry. Remove from the heat; cool for 10 to 15 minutes,
stirring occasionally.

Add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly
incorporating each one into the dough before adding the next. The dough will
appear wet at first, but keep stirring, and it will absorb the egg. Fold in the
sugar and the orange and lemon zests.

Use a large spoon to portion the dough
evenly among the 16 muffin pan wells. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the sfingi are a light golden brown, then
rotate the pan(s) front to back, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake
for about 30 minutes or until they are nicely puffed and golden brown. Turn out
the sfingi onto a rack to cool completely.

For the filling and assembly: Combine
the ricotta, sugar, almond extract, rum, cinnamon, orange zest and chocolate
chips in a mixing bowl. If the filling is stiff, gradually stir in milk as
needed to form a smooth but fairly firm filling. (Don't add too much, or the
filling will be runny.)

Slice the tops from the cooled sfingi. (The tops make a great snack!)
Spoon filling into each of the sfingi,
mounding it slightly.

Although the photograph shows a
maraschino cherry atop each sfingi, I
prefer the fresh fruit as I indicated in the recipe. Refrigerate for at least 2
hours and serve chilled.

Our Books

Search This Blog

Follow by Email

Welcome

We are the characters--major and minor--who inhabit the pages of some of your favorite cozy mysteries.We're coming out from between the covers and welcoming you into our lives.So grab a nice cuppa, settle in, and learn what happens when our authors aren't looking.

Top 50 Mystery Blogs!

Great news... Killer Characters came in at number 20 among the top 50 mystery blogs!

Nominations & Awards

Congratulations to our Killer Character member authors who have been nominated and/or won awards! Our authors are listed, and a link provided to the full award nomination list.